Dr Nerida Jarkey

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Biographical details

Nerida’s first degree program was a BA (Asian Studies) at the Australian National University, from which she graduated in 1983 with First Class Honours and a University Medal. She completed her PhD in Linguistics at the University of Sydney in 1991. In 1992 and 1993, she lived in Sweden, and taught linguistics and writing in the Department of English at the University of Uppsala.

Since 1994, Nerida has worked in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. In addition to her position in Japanese Studies, she has held the roles of Director of First Year Learning and Teaching (2003 – 2007) and Director of Student Support Programs (2008 – 2011). At the University level, Nerida served as Director of Learning and Teaching for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2004 – 2006), and as chair of the University’s First Year Experience Working Group (2006 – 2012).

Nerida is Editor for Language and Sociolinguistics for the journal Japanese Studies.

Research interests

With a primary interest in Asian area linguistics, Nerida’s research focuses on two languages: Japanese and Hmong. She is concerned with the ways in which speakers use grammar to convey meaning, and how this might relate to cognition, culture and the expression of social identity. Nerida’s research gives particular attention to multi-verb constructions, and to the theory of semantic transitivity, by which transitivity is viewed not simply as a ‘black and white’ issue associated with a single verb, but as a scalar property related to the entire clause.

In the field of tertiary learning, Nerida’s research has focused on the first year experience. Here, her aim is not only to develop an understanding of students’ experiences, but to investigate practices that can improve those experiences.

Teaching and supervision

At the undergraduate level, Nerida currently teaches grammar for Japanese 5 and 6, as well as ‘Japanese Sociolinguistics’. For postgraduate students, she offers the Asian Studies unit ‘Cross-Cultural Communication in Asia’, which is a core unit in the Masters of Cross-Cultural Communication program.

Nerida has supervised or is currently supervising research in the areas of: semantic transitivity and aktionsart; voice, tense, modality and aspect; verb and clause linkage; illocutionary particles; personal pronouns; conversation analysis, discourse analysis, politeness, speech acts and gendered language; and language death. She is delighted to discuss honours or postgraduate research with students interested in topics in Japanese or Asian area linguistics.

Current research students

Current projects

Nerida is currently working on a book on the topic of Serial Verb Constructions in White Hmong, which will be published by Brill. She is also finalising a chapter entitled ‘The Housewife’s Companion: Identity Construction in a Japanese women’s magazine’, which will contribute to an edited volume, Language and Identity Across Modes of Communication, to be published by Mouton.

Ishii, K., Jarkey, N. (2002). The Housewife Is Born: The Establishment of the Notion and Identity of the Shufu in Modern Japan. Japanese Studies, 22(1), 35-47.

Conferences

Jarkey, N., Iwashita, M. (2005). Setting the Scene: A comparative study of the 'attributive passive' and the '-te aru' construction in Japanese. 2004 Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society, Sydney, Australia: Australian Linguistic Society.

Jarkey, N. (2002). Teacher or a TV?: Contrasting Modes of Interaction in the Australian University Classroom. 6th Pacific Rim Conference for the First Year of Higher Education, Brisbane, Australia: Queensland University of Technology.

Jarkey, N., Iwashita, M. (2005). Setting the Scene: A comparative study of the 'attributive passive' and the '-te aru' construction in Japanese. 2004 Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society, Sydney, Australia: Australian Linguistic Society.

Jarkey, N. (2002). Teacher or a TV?: Contrasting Modes of Interaction in the Australian University Classroom. 6th Pacific Rim Conference for the First Year of Higher Education, Brisbane, Australia: Queensland University of Technology.

Ishii, K., Jarkey, N. (2002). The Housewife Is Born: The Establishment of the Notion and Identity of the Shufu in Modern Japan. Japanese Studies, 22(1), 35-47.